In steam driven ship propulsion systems, oil fired burners furnish variable and controlled amounts of steam to the propulsion system through a steam throttle. Typically, the boilers are controlled automatically by a pneumatic control system, which responds to the steam pressure in the boiler drum, the rate of steam flow through the steam throttle, the rate of feedwater flow to the boiler drum, and the water level in the boiler drums to automatically control the fuel oil valves furnishing fuel oil to the burners, feedwater valves furnishing water to the drums and forced draft burners furnishing air to the burners. Because the components of the pneumatic control system are interrelated and perform in a cascading mode, misalignment malfunction or degradation in the operating characteristics of the components of the system can cause total degradation without any clear indication as to which component, is causing the problem. Currently, on naval vessels to maintain satisfactory operation of a pneumatic system, a series of tests, called on-line verification tests, have been designed to test the performance of the various components of the pneumatic control system, each test involving a series of different steps performed manually by the operator, and the operator manually reading and recording gauges, and comparing the gauge readings with standard values. In addition, to the online verification procedures which are described in detail in a manual, the boiler is tested periodically by what is described as a flex test in which the performance of the control system is evaluated by operating the steam throttle to increase or decrease the fuel pressure to the burners by 70%.